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Are you ready for Enterprise Architecture 2.0?

Enterprise architecture (EA) in Asia is ripe and ready for version 2.0. Chairman and founder of IASA Asia Pacific, Aaron Tan Dani said, “EA 1.0 treated an IT implementation like a project, which focused only on the IT organisation. EA 2.0 is about a mindset and culture that focuses on the entire organisation.

“There are many key differences between both, but the key one is that EA 2.0 drives transformation for the whole enterprise, and business KPIs are continuously mapped to enterprise architecture to enable continuous measurement and continuous improvement,” Tan also emphasised.

Enterprise architecture 2.0 was also one of the topics of discussion at Business IT Architecture Series (BITAS) events currently happening around the Asia Pacific region.

Participants during the recent BITAS Jakarta conference

IASA’s Global Community Director, Damaris Bode also discovered from the first local BITAS event, just how passionate Asians are at moving enterprise architecture forward. IASA is a global association for all IT architects, with 30 local chapters all around the globe, and IASA Asia Pacific being one of their regional chapters.Bode observed, “In Jakarta, the audience was very curious and hungry for information. It is always exciting to see passionate people who want to move something forward and make an impact, instead of thinking, ‘What’s in it for me?’”

She also saw the same during the regional BITAS Executive Series event in Bali and shared that the audience was very open and ready to take the next step in their EA journeys.

“These BITAS events were a great way to meet people from different backgrounds and networks, but who are truly interested in how to move forward. That attitude and mindset creates great synergies,” Bode said.

Despite the BITAS series being held locally at five locations around the region – Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Hong Kong – a single theme threads through all these five separate events – How to Architect the Digital Business.

The digital economy – architecting for quick wins
For the past few years, enterprises grappled with how to leverage cloud, big data, mobility and most recently the Internet of Things (IoT) – what are big organisations to do with their expensive existing investments in legacy infrastructure? How do they ensure that their old IT infrastructure will work with new ones? What is the best way to leverage new (and old) technologies for return on investments?

Managing these trends and all the change that follows requires a good deal of anticipation and heads-up about what is upcoming in the horizon. IASA Global’s CEO and founder, Paul Preiss would address this during his keynote at all the BITAS events about how to “Future-proof your enterprise through architecture.”

IASA APAC chairman, Aaron Tan Dani would also be presenting more detail about Enterprise Architecture 2.0 and how with so many countries implementing EA as part of their national agenda, EA 2.0 is crucial for not just countries, but also enterprises that want to leverage dynamic and fast-changing technology climates today.

National Heart Institute onboard
New technologies also almost always means designing a new strategy, and driving it in the organisation. This is something that the Director of Health Informatics at the National Heart Institute, Dr. Ariffin Marzuki Mokhtar actually experienced and can relate to.

His experience-sharing would be a highlight at any event for IT architects and Tan observed that this is a great example of how an already established profession, is helping out our profession (enterprise architecture) that is working towards that level too.

A specialist in the medical field, Dr. Ariffin has huge interest in enterprise architecture, and has even achieved IASA’s Associate-level Certificate of Information Technology Architect (CITA-A), in three years.

He contributes regularly to the IT Architecture Body of Knowledge (ITABoK), and would be sharing how he applies his IT architecture learnings at the National Heart Institute, during the BITAS KL that will also be held at the National Heart Institute premises.

Local, regional, global
The Business IT Architecture Series (BITAS) conference, is an annual series of local events around the region, whereby IT architects together with local partners and communities, bring together international, regional and local industry leaders and practitioners to share best practices and skills that are required for the success of the new digital enterprise.

Bode commented, “While members or people from a network may only attend a conference or event in Asia, they are part of a true global network.

Delegates from all around the region at the BITAS Executive Series event in Bali

“They can tap into resources that are created on that same global network, and IASA is supporting not just stabilisation, but also creation of a local (EA) profession. This is happening on a global basis.”

Specific to Asia, there is BITAS, and it is not just a series of local conferences that happens around the region. At each venue, there is also a CIO roundtable portion for IT leaders, and 3 days of Master Class workshops for those who want more hands-on knowledge.

IT practitioners and decision makers in Asia, that are battle-worn or just about to start their journey, would find the Business and IT Architecture Series (BITAS) their cup of tea, especially during this digital economy era when Asian businesses need to take the bull by the horns and carve out their competitive edges.